Archaic period in Greece

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archaic kouros

The archaic period in Greece (750 BC- 480BC) is the period during which the ancient Greek city-states developed, and is normally taken to cover roughly the 8th century to the 6th century BC.

The Archaic period followed the Greek Dark Ages, and saw significant advancements in political theory, and the rise of democracy, philosophy, theatre, poetry, as well as the revitalisation of the written language (which had been lost during the Dark Ages).

[edit] 8th Century Revolution

During the Archaic Period, new political structures started to be formed. As the Greek population grew, the "oikos" or households of Kings, which dominated the political structure of the Dark Ages, started to transform into what is referred to as the "polis" or city-state.

[edit] Archaic art

The period takes its name from what, in art history, was considered the archaic or old-fashioned style of sculpture and other works of art/craft that were characteristic of this time, as opposed to the more natural look of work made in the following Classical period (see Classical sculpture).

During the period, the major sculptural forms were the kouros and its female equivalent the kore.

In pottery, the Archaic period sees the development of the Orientalizing style, which signals a shift from the Geometric Style of the later Dark Ages and the accumulation of influences derived from Phoenicia and Syria.

Pottery styles associated with the later part of the Archaic age are the black-figure pottery, which originated in Corinth during the 7th century BC and its successor, the red-figure style, developed by the Andokides Painter in about 530 BC.